In recent years, various electronic image-producing means have been developed and their image quality is compared with that of silver halide photographic materials. Such comparison has resulted in rediscovery of the merits in the high image quality and convenience of silver halide photographic materials. Therefore, the use of silver halide color photographic materials not only as a print of photography but also as a hard copy for electronic images has become considered. In such circumstances, in order to make conspicuous the features of silver halide photographic materials, studies, for example, of improving sharpness and color reproduction to obtain high image quality, and of shortening the processing time and improving the processing technique to render the process simple and rapid, are vigorously being pursued. In simple and rapid processing, owing to the progress of simple rapid development systems, typically mini-lab systems, high-image-quality printed photographs are now supplied relatively easily in a short period of time inexpensively. Further, by using a silver halide emulsion high in silver chloride content, as described in WO 87-04534, considerable shortening of the processing time and improvement of processing fluctuation are attained.
With respect to the color reproduction of high-image-quality photographic materials, color couplers excellent in color reproduction are now being developed and improved. On the other hand, as means of improving sharpness of silver halide photographic materials having a reflective support, various techniques are known. The techniques include, for example, (1) prevention of irradiation by using water-soluble dyes, (2) prevention of halation by using, for example, colloidal silver, mordant dyes, or solid fine particle dyes, and (3) increasing the filling ratio of the white pigment in the polyolefin laminate film on a paper support, or prevention of light from entering the support by applying additionally a white pigment in the form of a gelatin dispersion onto the support.
However, out of these means, the techniques (1) and (2) have such injurious effects that the sensitivity decreases considerably and that there is residual color at the time of processing. On the other hand, in the existing circumstances, increasing the filling ratio of the white pigment in the polyolefin laminate film on a paper support by the technique (3) is difficult in view of the production process of the laminate film. Accordingly, the additional application of a white pigment in the form of a gelatin dispersion onto the support is a preferable technique, because the sharpness can be improved considerably with minimal injurious effects. For example, JP-A ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application) Nos. 64235/1982 and 187846/1987 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,002 disclose this technique. However, it was discovered that a new problem arose, in that the preservability of the photographic material is deteriorated when a white pigment in the form of a gelatin dispersion is applied. In addition, it was found that this problem is greater in the case of silver halide emulsion grains very high in silver chloride content, and improvement of this problem was required. Further, it was found that the higher the illuminance of the exposure is, the greater the change in the sensitivity during the storage is.